THOUGHTS ON THE CONSCIOUS USE OF BERLIN TAP WATER
THOUGHTS ON THE CONSCIOUS USE OF BERLIN TAP WATER
What is the quality of Berlin's drinking water? Should it be filtered? And if so, which technology is best? Water expert Thomas Hartwig gets to the bottom of these and other questions.
If you read the many negative media and statements of water filter suppliers about residues of hormones, medication and heavy metals in tap water, you quickly get the feeling that our tap water is unsafe and dangerous. On the other hand, there are reports about the much better quality of tap water in comparison to bottled water. Contrary advertising statements on the part of the mineral water industry, the suppliers of filter systems and the water suppliers are increasingly unsettling consumers. This article wants to encourage a conscious use of our water and at the same time give a holistic picture of the situation in order to be able to act accordingly.
How good is our tap water in Berlin?
Our water is the best controlled food in Germany, they say. But what does that mean? It means that there is no foodstuff in Germany that is provided with more test parameters by the legislator than our tap water. The reality is: 56 different substances in water are tested. If all parameters are below the specified limit, the water may be fed into the municipal supply. The question now is: How many substances could there actually be in the water? After all, there are currently over 50,000 prescription drugs on the market in Germany alone.1,2 For most of the active ingredients contained in tap water, there are no limits that must be queried and observed. In addition, there are also residues from industry and agriculture as well as microplastics from cosmetic products which together result in the same number of possible pollutants - and for which the tap water is also not tested. This means that less than 0.1 per thousand of the possible contaminants in the water are tested. That is equivalent to almost nothing. On the Berliner Wasserbetriebe website, the analyses also show that Berliner Wasser currently contains an average of twelve residues of various medicines and X-ray contrast media.3
Nevertheless, our test parameters are among the strictest in Europe, and in Germany we enjoy a water whose quality people in many countries of the world can only dream of. Germany is also rich in fresh water. So we have neither water shortage nor is our water undrinkable. It is therefore important to realise that when we talk about the issue of water quality, we are addressing a luxury problem of our society. People in a developing country would not be bothered by a few residues of medicines, as their water is generally in an undrinkable or disease-causing state. We are also talking about a self-inflicted dilemma that is largely caused by our lifestyle. It is therefore not very purposeful to bitch about the water supply companies because they do not filter our own dirt properly. Rather, it is a question of installing additional protection against the pollutants contained in tap water and of checking one's own consumer behaviour.
How do I protect the water?
Many of the unwanted residues in water are, as already mentioned, caused by our lifestyle. Residues of microplastics come mainly from cosmetics and cleaning products. The substances only reach the groundwater via showers and laundry washing. Switching to biodegradable products from the organic market here improves the water quality in the long term. This reduces the "dirt" that I later have to filter out of the water. Hormones and drug residues are also a self-made problem due to the high consumption of drugs. So if we avoid medication, consistently use ecological cleaners and cosmetics and make sure we buy food that uses fewer chemicals in its production, we protect our water!
A good comparison of what awareness of water quality means is our abundant food supply. We live with an abundance of food, which is also subject to a variety of controls. Even from the discount supermarket I can consume everything without getting sick immediately. The same applies to tap water, but in recent years the segment of organic supermarkets in Berlin has virtually exploded. Apparently, the normal range of products is no longer good enough for us, so if I decide subjectively that the quality of the food in the supermarket is not good enough for me and I want to consume higher-quality food instead, I go to the organic shop. There I buy food without pesticides or genetic manipulation, which is less harmful. So I choose for myself a higher standard than the norm. Then of course it doesn't make sense to use tap water and I have to set my own standards for drinking water. I have two options here. Either I buy a high-quality spring water in a glass bottle in the organic food store or I get a water filter and prepare my tap water myself.
Is bottled water an alternative?
In general, it should be noted that bottled water is even worse controlled than our tap water. Therefore it does not matter how expensive or cheap any water from the supermarket is. It is almost always worse than tap water. Exceptions are some spring water from glass bottles, which you can usually get in the organic market. But for this you usually have to invest one Euro per litre. If you want to cook your noodles with good water, it will be quite expensive and the environment will be polluted by transport and bottling and you will have to carry the water home. Plastic bottles pollute the environment even more and also worsen the water quality in the bottle by releasing substances such as plasticizers. Mineral water from plastic bottles is
is therefore not an alternative for a conscious and sustainable lifestyle and should disappear from life altogether. At the moment we are still far from this: in America alone, so many plastic bottles are consumed every week that if they were lined up side by side, they would reach five times around the globe. In response, San Francisco is the first city in the world to ban water from disposable plastic bottles under 600 milliliters by 2015. I see this as an important step that Berlin, as a trendy city, should also follow.
All this shows that it is much more sustainable and intelligent to treat the existing tap water in such a way that it is equivalent to a good spring water from the bottle. On top of that, there is no cheaper way to get good water.
The biological quality of the water
So far we have talked about pollutants, i.e. substances in water. Now the energy component comes into play. An apple, for example, is a ripe food if it has grown under natural conditions on an untreated tree in a meadow. If the tree drops the apple, nature has decided that this apple has now completed its ripening process and I can eat it. Where do we find the equivalent of this process in water? According to Viktor Schauberger (1885-1958), the Austrian water researcher, spring water corresponds exactly to the ripe apple. Spring water leaves Mother Nature's womb under its own power as a fresh spring. It has completed its growth process and is ripe to be drunk. It is precisely this special power of "ripening" that is at stake when we speak of spring water. It has completely different physical properties than conventional tap water.
Such biologically active water is much better able to transport nutrients and vital substances, detoxify the body, supply the cells with water and transmit electrical impulses in the body than tap or bottled water.4 A pictorial comparison would be the craftsman I order to my home. I certainly find it pleasant if he comes in clean working clothes, but it is much more important to me whether he knows what he has to do and whether he works properly. With regard to water, this means that it is not only the cleanliness of the water that matters, but also its functionality. So it is not just a question of chemical considerations, but also of physical considerations. Because: Just because I filter tap water, it is by no means healthy spring water. It is simply clean tap water. When I filter it, I also have to make sure that I do not disturb the functionality of the water. So if I take my craftsman again and put him into a trendy pinstripe suit, for example, he may look perfectly dressed, but he is completely wrongly equipped for his work. In the same way, I don't make a doctor out of him when I put him in a doctor's coat.
Water Vitalization
The vitalization of water therefore means to bring it into an energetically better state so that it has the same physical properties as a natural spring water in nature. Other terms for this are energising, swirling, dynamising and magnetising. Although these methods differ significantly in their approach and in the result for the body, they usually mean the same thing.
Water treatment is all about finding a healthy balance between purification and vitalization. Modern science helps us to clarify this. Quantum physics in particular teaches us that there is no solid matter per se. There is only energy in different forms of vibration. Therefore there is no pollutant, but only one vibration, which has to be eliminated. However, this could lead to the false picture that any filtering is superfluous and that any substance can be energetically neutralized. There is some truth in this statement, but the question arises where the limit lies. Although it is clear to me that quantum-physically the table is not there, only energy that vibrates, it still hurts when I bump into it. Therefore my recommendation when choosing water treatment, functionality, i.e. how well the water can do its job in the body, is to pay the main attention and at the same time not to neglect filtering. That is why when I choose a filter, it is best to choose a variant that offers me safe protection from the most important pollutants, but does not have a negative effect on the physical properties of the water.
Personal responsibility is required
Why can the waterworks not offer water of this quality right away?
Even if the waterworks could treat the water in such a way that it no longer contains micro traces of undesirable substances, the effort would be economically unjustifiable, since the majority of the water goes to industry and agriculture. Only about five percent of tap water comes into direct contact with us at all. The high costs for treatment would therefore be unnecessary. Added to this are the long water supply networks and old house pipes, through which substances can also get back into the water. It therefore makes much more sense to take responsibility as an end user and only improve the amount of water I actually consume. It is simply most beneficial for all concerned. It can also guarantee the best possible quality, because a fine filter is fitted immediately before the water is drawn off and the water cannot deteriorate afterwards, provided a high-quality tap is used. In this way, we could enter into cooperation with the water companies and at the same time ensure stable water prices and protect our environment in the long term.
A further problem for the end user is that the health-promoting physical properties in the water are also lost when we press it through long rectangular piping systems under high pressure. It simply does not correspond to the natural dynamics of water to move in this way. Again, the water suppliers cannot do anything about this. Because no city would be able to build a supply network that would naturally increase the water in meandering form - take Berlin as an example - to around 3.6 million people. We live in a polar world and everything has two sides to it, so it is important to be aware of the great advantage of the modern world and at the same time to be aware of the possible disadvantages that may arise under the law and to act accordingly.
Different filter systems for different applications
How can I now rid my tap water of unwanted substances? There are different methods to clean the water. I would like to mention the two most common ones.first of all, it should be noted that every technique has its justification and there is no right or wrong.we live in Berlin and of course we have to master the Berlin tap water with its challenges.if we lived in Mexico City, the procedure to be used would certainly be different.
1) Filtering with activated carbon
Activated carbon is an inadequate word when describing filter processes, as it only describes the building material used for the filter, not its processing and fineness. There are, for example, granular filters (can filters) in which the activated carbon is only in the form of loose carbon, i.e. small balls, in a container, and the water seeps through them. These filters are completely different in their properties from solid block filters with a defined fineness, so if some manufacturers, for example of osmosis filter devices, claim that an activated carbon filter cannot remove residues of medication, then this statement is only correct if one limits oneself to granulate filters. In the following we will therefore look at the activated carbon block filter, as this is the safest.
Such a filter has two central features. First, it has a specific pore size. If these pores are very small, bacteria, asbestos, microplastics and much more can be retained.
The second, special property of an activated carbon filter is its adsorption capacity (not to be confused with absorption). This means that organic compounds enter into a chemical reaction with the surface and "stick" to it via the molecular Van der Waals forces. This means that all C-H (carbon and hydrogen) compounds are adsorbed on the surface of the activated carbon. These include drugs, pesticides, hormones and others. In itself almost all organic substances, including glyphosate. However, for this reaction to take place, it requires the cooperation of two parameters that determine the degree of adsorption: surface area times contact time. The greater both, the better the adsorption. Cartridges that have the same fineness in comparison, but differ in flow rate, therefore have different adsorption rates. In concrete terms, this means that it is better for an activated carbon cartridge to deliver less water per minute than more, which is often misinterpreted, because activated carbon does not filter hormones and drugs, it adsorbs them, and this takes time.
Sterile does not equal healthy
Many activated carbon filters on the market advertise the additional safety of UV radiation and/or silver admixture. However, this bacteriological safety changes the water quality to such an extent that it is no longer optimal for the human body. Just think about how healthy water can be if it has been treated by a system in such a way that no microorganisms can survive in it. In our intestine live bacteria that are important for us. There the water is absorbed and it must not disturb our intestinal flora, so water should not be sterile. It is much more natural to design a filter in such a way that harmful bacteria cannot pass through it, but at the same time the water remains able to accommodate microorganisms. In this way, you can be sure that the bacteria will not drink with you. Because a system that kills bacteria does not remove them and you literally drink "bacterial corpses" with their decomposition substances.
In Germany the company Carbonit manufactures the best available activated carbon block filters in a patented process. In contrast to American and Asian models, these are not pressed but baked. This creates a completely different structure
and density of the filter. These filters are so fine that all particles up to a size of 0.45 μm cannot pass through the filter. These include microplastics and bacteria. The bacteria safety was also confirmed by the independent University of Bielefeld in a long-term test. All this without silver, chemicals or UV radiation.
What can activated carbon do and what can it not do? Activated carbon can filter everything of organic origin and also retain heavy metals, lead, copper and chlorine. Special combination cartridges can also filter viruses, mercury and arsenic. However, nitrates, fluorides, sulphates, phosphates and minerals cannot be filtered. It is important to know that if you want to filter out any of the above substances, you have to remove everything from the water. Even the minerals. The importance of the minerals in water and the question whether they can be metabolized in the human organism at all, I have discussed in detail in an article published on our website. Therefore, due to the limited scope of the article, I can only summarize here that minerals determine the taste and character of water and stabilize its pH value.
Reverse osmosis: Everything must go
We therefore return to the original question. What do I want to filter and where do I want to filter? In Berlin, both according to information from water companies and our own investigations, there are no or only a few micro traces of nitrates, fluorides, sulphates and phosphates in tap water. The challenges in Berlin are mainly residues from old pipes, lead and pharmaceuticals. Lead in particular is proven to damage the brain, but can be safely filtered out with a tested activated carbon filter. Therefore, in my opinion, it makes no sense to sterilize the water by demineralization - as with a reverse osmosis system.
2) Filtering with reverse osmosis (RO)
Reverse osmosis technology has all the above-mentioned filter capacities of activated carbon, but also removes all minerals, trace elements and the above-mentioned pollutants from the water. However, reverse osmosis works completely differently than an activated carbon cartridge. Although RO also have an activated carbon pre-filter, this serves mainly to protect the membrane and draws the chlorine from the water, which would damage the membrane. The water is then forced through a membrane that is so fine that only water molecules and gases can pass through it. The result is almost distilled water with a low pH value. Here we come back to the question of what kind of water we want to produce with our filter technology. Is spring water identical to distilled water? No, certainly not. If we look at spring water in nature, the character of spring water is stored in the minerals. A spring water from Italy has different minerals than a spring water from Austria or Norway for geological reasons. One has more minerals, the other less, but they all have some. Minerals make up the character and taste of water. If I extract the minerals from the water, I remove its body. In addition, important frequency patterns are stored at the minerals, which the water needs from an energetic point of view.
A spring water from the mountains filtered with an RO is no different from a sewage water filtered with an RO, because everything has been extracted. This technique originates from space travel. During his stay in space, an astronaut has only used a limited amount
He carries water with him and must treat everything, including his excrements, so that he can drink it again. This is possible with an RO. However, we are not astronauts, and if we want our Berlin tap water to be of original spring water quality, it needs minerals. Berlin generally has good groundwater, so demineralisation would be tantamount to castrating the water and is the equivalent of sterilisation by UV radiation. Hence my clear recommendation to use a RO only if the pollutants in the water, which an activated carbon filter cannot remove, exceed the given limits. And this is not the case in Berlin as long as I use tap water.
Healthy through healthy water
In summary, one can say that in Berlin, the water has a quite high standard. The mineral content in Berlin's soil is good and removing the minerals from the water would remove all trace elements. The focus of a modern, holistic water treatment should be on energization, since it is the functional component that is decisive and not the chemical purity. There are various efficient vitalization methods available here, such as UMH technology from Austria. In combination with a high-quality activated carbon filter, I can thus enjoy the quality of a soft and fresh spring water in Berlin, which is in no way inferior to the most expensive spring water from the organic shop. When choosing the right filter, it is important to obtain a conclusive expert opinion. You should not blindly rely on any information provided by the manufacturer.
As long as I do not use a water filter it is important to let the tap water run off until it is very cold. This way I can be sure that possible pollutants have drained from the house pipe and I get fresh water from the water companies. In addition, the water is always cool and I save on storing the water in the fridge in summer.
Our body consists of about 70 percent water. It is our main building material and is involved in all metabolic processes. Healthy water is for me the most important investment in a healthy and conscious life.
About the author:
Thomas Hartwig is a certified medical nutritionist and founder of the company Leogant. For many years he has been intensively involved with the element of water. He is a valued keynote speaker and guest on podcasts, where he shares his knowledge and experience. In his work he combines findings from natural science and medicine with philosophical approaches to contribute to a holistic water awareness.
References
Here, only prescription drugs are taken as an approximate value as a pollutant. Of course this is not quite correct, as many drugs use similar active ingredients. This figure is difficult to determine. There are over 100,000 approved drugs in total, and about half of them are prescription drugs.
A role for water in cell structure. J.G. Watterson. Biochem J. 1987 Dec 1; 248(2): 615-617.
Role of hydration water in protein unfolding. G W Robinson and C H Cho. Biophys J. 1999 Dec; 77(6): 3311-3318.
Hexagonal Water: The Key to Health.Dr.Mu Shik Jhon and M J Pangman, MobiWell; Edition: 1 (April 1, 2008)